


This Melody Was Meant for You

by flammablehat



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Pre-Relationship, Take your fandom to work, Team Gluttony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 20:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2241606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flammablehat/pseuds/flammablehat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Merlin abandon the corporate fortress to pay a visit to Gwen and Will at the nearby Starbucks and it is, unsurprisingly, the highlight of everyone's day.  Except for maybe Will, who is a barista and therefore immune to mood-lifting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Melody Was Meant for You

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a bonus challenge for some bygone round of pornathon. This is possibly the closest I've ever come to a genuine take your fandom to work fic, and because I am either very efficient or very lazy (or some combination of the two) I've collapsed two of my previous jobs into one fic. 
> 
> So in a sense I am both Will and Merlin here, if anyone is curious. 
> 
> Title taken from 'Stereo Hearts' by Gym Class Heroes.

Merlin’s mouth turned down at the corners as all the bubbles fell off of his bubble spinner. Stupid work laptop, somehow afflicted with both an absurdly trigger-happy trackpad _and_ lag. It really made for unsatisfying time-wasting. 

He sighed, getting up and stretching and walking out from behind his desk. Rapping his knuckles on Arthur’s office door, he poked his head inside. 

“I’m heading down to grab a coffee and say hey to Will. Do you want anything?” 

“Hm?” Arthur said, tapping his pen against his cheek. It was upside down with the cap off and, as Merlin watched, it left a streak of blue right underneath Arthur’s eye. Merlin pressed his lips together tight. “Coffee? Oh, you’re going to Starbucks?”

“Yeah,” Merlin said. “You want?”

“Yeah, sure,” Arthur said, pulling out his wallet. A thought seemed to occur to him. Merlin guessed it had the general shape of a wide, bright smile and bouncy brown hair and twinkly eyes. “Actually, I’ll walk with you.” 

“Alright,” Merlin said, grinning.

\---

“Hello!” Gwen said, sliding over from where she was restocking the pastries to the run the till. “How are you today?”

“I’d like a cappuccino.” The woman spoke as if she was trying to issue orders to a machine — as shortly and simply as possible, so as not to confuse. 

“What size?” Gwen asked. 

“What?” the woman said, looking up from where she was digging in her purse. “Oh, medium.” 

“Grande cappucino,” Gwen called to the bar. Will raised his foam spoon in acknowledgement. He refused to call drinks back because _‘I’m not a fucking parrot, Gwen.’_ “Will that be all for you today, ma’am?” 

“Yes.” 

Gwen took the card that was thrust at her and ran it, smiling as she handed it back. Behind her the steam wand wailed, its hissing settling into the familiar crackle of hot air and cold milk that produced exactly the right kind of foam. 

Her efforts at pleasantness didn’t stick — the woman walked to the other end of the bar and resumed rummaging through her bag. 

“Grande cappuccino,” Will said, sliding the cup across the hand-off plane seconds later. The woman lifted it and frowned.

“This feels very light,” she said.

“It’s a cappuccino.” 

She lifted the lid and stuck her finger in the cup. “This is way too much foam. Half the drink is gone!” 

“Yes,” Will said. “Because it’s a cappuccino. Did you want a latte?” 

“No, my drink is a cappucino. Very light foam. I’m not paying almost five bucks for a cup of foam, young man.”

“Well, then you’re in luck. I have just the drink for you. It’s called a _latte_ and it costs exactly the same.” 

“Excuse me?” the woman said sharply. Gwen leaned across Will and exchanged his cup for the one she’d just made. 

“Here you are, ma’am,” she said, subtly elbowing Will in the gut. “That should be what you’re looking for.” 

Suspiciously testing its weight, she took a sip and turned away from the bar, apparently satisfied. 

“Enjoy your latte!” Will called after her as she walked out the door.

\---

Arthur and Merlin shook themselves out like a pair of cats as they stepped into the cafe, shuddering off the cold that followed them inside. Will stood behind the bar, sullenly refilling whip cream canisters. 

Merlin cast about for Gwen, but the store appeared to be going through its midday lull and they might’ve arrived just in time to miss her leaving for the bank. Arthur’s shoulders sagged a little. 

“Come on,” Merlin nudged him, sympathetic. “I’ll buy this time.” 

“Yeah, with the money I gave you,” Arthur said. He wasn’t even pretending to look at the menu, already fishing out two dollars for his sad cup of sad coffee that was his drink of choice whenever _someone_ wasn’t around to entertain him with suggestions. 

“Sir William.” Merlin smiled, approaching the bar. 

“Do you know,” Will said, because he liked to start conversations with non sequiturs, “that this banker douche pulling up right now comes in every day. _Every_ day. Mr. triple-venti-one-pump-mocha-soy-no-foam-latte, Mr. I Drive a BMW to Broadcast My Awesome Desk Job With Benefits, Mr. You Only Make My Drink Every Day but There’s No Reason I Should Know Your Name By Now, After Two Years, has never once left a tip? I don’t ask for much, Merlin.” 

Arthur coughed.

“Shut up,” Will said, pointing a newly charged whip cream canister at him like a gun. Arthur lifted his hands. Cold air blew past them as the door opened, admitting a tall man in a black trench that gave him a distinctly crow-like look. 

“Ah, Arthur, how are you?” he said, gripping a slightly bemused Arthur’s forearm in a firm shake. 

“Aredian,” Arthur said, deliberately ignoring Will’s expression of narrow-eyed vindication. Merlin coughed to mask his snickering. “How are you?”

“Well, I’m very well, my boy. About time for a pick-me-up, isn’t it?”

“It is, yes.”

“Right, I’ll have a triple venti, one pump of mocha—”

“Yeah I know, I know.” Will waved him off, leaving Aredian to turn back to Arthur. 

“I’m a bit of a regular,” he said, the shadows at the corners of his lips deepening, expression smug. 

“I can’t blame you,” Arthur said, neutral. Will snorted. Arthur shot him a warning glare that Will ignored as he poured the soy and spun Aredian’s empty cup on his palm in a pointless showy gesture, all while whistling what sounded like a funeral dirge. 

“Gwen!” Will called over his shoulder at the door that led to the back. “Paying customers!” 

Arthur perked up. 

“What have I told you about shouting in the store?” Gwen said, poking the door open with a long reach from her seat in the office chair. What was visible of their back room looked about as big as a postage stamp, syrups stacked on heavy-duty wire shelves to the ceilings next to nondescript cardboard boxes that, presumably, contained coffee and other items. When she saw Arthur she jerked, unbalancing the tilt of her chair and clattering to the floor. Arthur started like he meant to leap over the counter as the door swung shut. Merlin winced.

“She’s fine,” Will said, not even looking around. “Triple venti soy one pump mocha no foam latte on the bar!” 

Gwen pushed the door open again. Aside from a bright pink flush across the bridge of her nose she looked unharmed. 

“Let me get this,” Arthur said as Aredian approached the front counter. He had a thin smudge of chocolate across the white of his closely cropped mustache. 

“I certainly won’t say no to that.” Aredian clapped him on the back, checked his watch, wished Arthur a pleasant day and left — oblivious to the daggers Will glared at him the whole time. 

“What did you put in his drink,” Merlin said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Will said loftily, dumping the little bit of extra soy out of his pitcher. 

Gwen threw him a dirty look and capped and uncapped her forgery pen, very focused upon the register’s screen. 

“Hi,” Arthur said, grinning. “Whatever he had, I guess, and um. A large coffee for me.” 

“Is that all?” Gwen said, biting her lip and tapping the order into the till. 

“Hey Gwen!” Merlin grinned.

“His usual monstrosity, I guess.” Arthur sighed, fishing out another five. 

“Merlin, I work here and I can’t support that drink,” Gwen said, beginning to smile.

“I can,” Will said, uncapping a caramel squeeze bottle with a flourish. 

“He’s going to be impossible to handle for the rest of the day,” Arthur said, mostly to Gwen. 

“I know, it’s going to be so great,” Merlin said, eyes glazing over at the thick ribbons of caramel sliding down the insides of his cup. 

“How have you been today?” Arthur asked, ignoring Merlin and Will’s gleeful noises behind him. “You’ve got a bit of, um,” he said, reaching for a small piece of paper caught in Gwen’s hair. 

“Oh!” she said, finally looking up. She held very still while Arthur plucked the piece of paper away, then her focus caught on his face. “Oh, you too, here—” she grabbed a fresh towel and wet it under their sink, rubbing gently at Arthur’s cheek and pulling away with the cloth stained faintly blue. 

“Merlin.” Arthur sighed again, and Merlin turned from his hypnotized ogling of the frappuccino pitcher. “You let me walk around with ink on my face?” 

“Blue suits you!” Merlin said. 

“Right, remember that pile of receipts I was going to organize for you?” Arthur said.

“Oh no, Arthur, don’t,” Merlin groaned.

“Yeah, I’m gonna need you to scan those in today before you leave.” 

“You have six envelopes of receipts!” 

“And at least two of them are from my trip to Asia, so make sure you’re paying attention to the conversion rates, will you?” 

Merlin slumped against the bar. In a show of solidarity, Will filled a second small cup with whip cream and handed it to him alongside his venti caramel explosion. 

“You’re a cruel boss,” Gwen chided, smiling. 

“He really loves it,” Arthur said. Their fingers brushed as Gwen slid his coffee to him. Arthur coughed, looking down. 

“I can see why,” she said. A beat passed, and Arthur’s gaze snapped up again. Apparently surprised by her own frankness, Gwen’s eyes widened. She spun away with a flustered “Sorry, gotta go finish the thing, I’ll just—” and disappeared into the back. 

A slow grin spread over Arthur’s face. He turned to Will and showed him the fifty dollar bill in his hand before he stuffed it in their tip jar, collared Merlin and steered them back toward the office.


End file.
